Sunday, May 25, 2008

Back in North Carolina

Every summer since I was 18 and moved away, I have returned to North Carolina for about two weeks to spend time with my family. Since I've always been either a teacher or a student, my summers have been flexible, and I've really enjoyed being able to do that. When my father's parents were alive, I would spend a week at a time with them, and I really treasure those memories. My mother's parents have said I'm the only grandchild who still comes to spend the night with them, heh.

So I dreamed for all those years that I would make this same trip with my own children every summer, and that it would be a great opportunity for them to spend time with their family. It took a lot longer to get to this point than I expected, but now here we are, on our first summer trip back to NC. :-)

We spent Friday hanging out with my sister Donna, her toddler Aidan, and new baby Emma (who's the same gestational age as Carter), and then we went to my sister Nicci's high school graduation on Friday night. Saturday we went up to Mount Airy to spend the day with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and of course that was the first time I remembered to get out my camera!

Here is Carter with Aunt Pam. Everyone was amazed at how much bigger he was than the last time they saw him, when he was barely 5 pounds.



He spent most of the day sleeping in someone's arms, which is exactly what he prefers! Here are a few more pictures of the bunch of us hanging out on my Aunt Bonnie's patio. It was a gorgeous day. In the front left you see my mom, and then behind her is Aunt Pam with Carter, Uncle Scott, and then Aunt Bonnie in the back. In the bottom front corner is my cousin's baby, Matti.



We spent a lot of time just sitting around and watching the babies! From left to right, here is my grandmother, grandfather, my cousin Julie (Matti is her baby), Ann (a friend of the family), and Uncle Lane.



Here's Grandpa and Grandma with Matti.



Matti was born just three weeks before Carter, but she was full term and so is several months ahead of him developmentally. It was so much fun to watch her and think about what Carter will be doing in just a few months! She has a blog here.



We literally just sat around and talked all day. The weather was beautiful and everyone was having such a great time that when late afternoon came someone suggested we cook out for dinner, and so we did! No one wanted to go home. :-D

It's going to be a fun two weeks. I'll try to remember to take more pictures so I can really document Carter's trip to see so many family members.

PS: This was taken last week, but it's a cute little video of Carter sucking his fist.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it wonderful to take him to the experiences you had always dreamed of? I was SO excited to take Sam to the family reunion last year. And I can't wait to take him again this summer. Just one month from now. Hooray!

Now we need to start making plans for those summers in Italy....

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.